The disappearance in the mail of the health information for up to 12,000 Ontarians — including name, health number and colon cancer screening status — underlines the need for electronic health records, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.

“I think what it does, and the Information privacy commissioner has referenced this a dozen times, is it bolsters the case that we continue to make as a government for us to move forward with electronic health records,” McGuinty said.

“And one of the things that we’ll be looking at Cancer Care Ontario for is improved and better ways to transmit that kind of confidential information.”

The reports were sent to doctors’ offices in February and March through Canada Post’s Xpresspost service at a cost of about $45,000 but it can’t be confirmed they were delivered.

Cavoukian has said it would be better if Cancer Care had sent the information on an encrypted USB key or compact disc rather than using plain paper forms, but the agency says there are still too many doctors whose offices are not computerized to do that.

The province’s quest for a system of digitizing health information was sidetracked in 2009 by a spending scandal at eHealth Ontario, after which auditor general Jim McCarter said up to a billion dollars was spent over 10 years without getting full value for that money.

About half of the province’s docs now use electronic records, Health Minister Deb Matthews said.

All of the individuals involved have already been told of the results of their colon cancer checks but the potential loss of the information is concerning as the information could be used for fraud.

“Let me tell you that we treat this as a very serious issue” McGuinty said.

“We’ll do everything that we can to assist in whatever way possible to retrieve this information and ensure that there is no breach of confidentiality, and that this information doesn’t get into the wrong hands.”